with thanks to John from Daejeon

John from Daejeon emailed me a link to this video:

It's videos like this that make me think I did the right thing by not pursuing a doctorate. What a waste that would have been, given the sorry state of American higher education these days. I can't say that what I'm currently doing, as a former English teacher now engaged in publishing, is particularly good or noble or even useful, but it sure beats being forced to toe a particular party line defined by ideology-driven goodthink and badthink, where a person who doesn't agree with the party line is not at liberty to speak his mind.

Then again, the current miasma affects more than higher education. In my own office, I find myself surrounded by people who all share each other's political point of view, so I deem it prudent simply not to entangle myself in politicial discussions—for the sake of my own sanity. Firebrands like Stefan Molyneux would call my stance cowardly: I should be engaging and pushing back—fighting the good fight, out-shouting and out-arguing, and not letting the other side have its way. He's free to think that, of course, but my own thinking, like Sun Tzu's, is that a person should pick his battles wisely instead of uselessly beating his head against a wall that can never be broken down. There's no way that I can change hearts and minds in my office; I can already see that. Better to keep on blogging here, for my five readers.

More videos from John here:


(NB: the following video includes footage from the first video embedded above, so you might want to flip forward about five minutes.)



I feel sorry for all the kids going to college in the States right now. What a shit show.